Open Letter to the Kehilla Rabbis

An Open Letter to the Chicago Kehilla Rabbis, you know who you are. 

And also to any other rabbis who might stumble across my blog.  Hell, also to anyone who deals with 20/30 something Jews and can't figure out where they are.  (And of course to my regular readers.)

Last night at the Tikkun Leyl you asked, "Where are we when the kids come back from Birthright?  The window is open and we just let them go by."  I stood up (green shirt, shaky voice) and said, "They go online.  They blog.  They are on MySpace, Jewlicious, Jewschool, Radical Torah."  Later another participant came up and said, "I was so glad to hear you mention blogging, nobody knows about it."

Let me be honest, I live and work in a world centered around computers, the internet and blogging.  I've been blogging since November 2003 and haven't been able to stop.  This has gone from being a travel blog, to a home-buying blog, to a conversion blog, to a jewish blog, to a... just all my life blog.

I want to take a minute and introduce you to the Jewish Internet beyond Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and the website of your movement.  Where are the Jewish kids?  (Also, this is my Jewish version of the internet.  I'm 29, reform convert.  Take it as you will, but as a starting place.)  Wait, wait.  What's a blog?  A blog is short of "web log" and is an easy to update online journal that has entries in reverse chronological order.  Unlike traditional static sites, users are allowed to comment on the posts--creating conversations and communities. 

Jewlicious and Jewschool are two places to start.  Multi-author blogs that have pretty decent readership.  Jewschool is primarily focused on Manhattan, but has enough wide-reaching content about Judaism, Jews and Israel, that the readership isn't only Manhattan folks.  Jewlicious includes writers in Israel and America.  It has more personal essays, but includes fierce debates between movements, about Israel, politics, sex, religion.  Everything polite company doesn't talk about.

MySpace.  This is a social networking website.  On it, users create a web of friends that links them to people they know in real life and people they share interests with.  It is a great tool for musicians to find new listeners and for old friends to reconnect.  Through MySpace, I have found other Jewish bloggers, been sought out for advice from others considering conversion, found Jewish musicians and connected with other people.  A quick search of MySpace shows that the number of users who identify at Jewish between the ages of 18-35 in the US is (drum roll please) 24,000 51,000*.  Yes, that is right.  24,000 51,000 self identified Jews in the magical 18-35 demographic.  All using the same website.  Granted there are about 82 million accounts world wide on MySpace... but 24,000 Jews is no laughing matter. 

Radical Torah is a project from the writers of Jewschool.  It is d'var torah with a strong sense of Tikkun Olam.  One of the writers is another blogger I check in with, The Velveteen Rabbi.

Another Rabbi that I keep tabs on are Rabbi Yonah from Beach Hillel.  Through MySpace I learned of Soferet--the only female sofer in the world.  Chicago's own Rabbi Robyn Friar and I both write regularly for Shebrew, an online magazine for young Jewish women.  Kind of a women's version of Heeb, only less snarky.  Another online/offline magazine is Guilt & Pleasure.

Who are the other Jews I check in on?

AmbivaBlog and her brother True Ancestor. 

An Unsealed Room gives me a window into life in Israel.  As does On The Face . 

There is KesherTalk  and Jihad Watch and Pillage Idiot and Soccer Dad and Seraphic Secret.

And, and, and.

There are millions of places on the web where the young Jews are.  Am I saying get a blog?  Not really.  I am saying get online.  See where your missing Jews are.  See where your active Jews are.  Go to Myspace and check in on your Bar and Bat MItzvah kids--see who they are friends with, you might be surprised (good and bad.)  What if your shul had a MySpace account?  A place for people who were confirmed there or went to your pre-school could reconnect?

And I never even got to podcasts, but I've been writing for 45 minutes and have to prepare for Shabbas.  I appreciate you all taking the time to speak last night and look forward to seeing you again.  Maybe I'll see you online?

Chag Sameach,

Leah

P.S.  For a more comprehensive list of Jewish Blogs check out the Wikipedia entry about the J-Blogosphere.  It even features a secion called Blogs a Rabbi Should Follow.

*a search on MySpace maxes out at 3,000.  So when I searched 18 year olds who are Jewish, I got 3,000.  Let's say that each year between 18-35 has minimum 3,000 people.  Then you've got AT LEAST 51,000 Jewish young adults using one site.  That's my methodology. 

However, playing around with the numbers a little more.  If I do the same criteria within 10 miles of zip 10001, I get 3000.  So when I dropped that to 18-21, I finally got a real number of 1255.  So 51K is the bare minimum of Jews on MySpace.

UPDATE:  A few other places to check...

Jewish Blogging  and Israel Forum JBlog Central and English Writing Israeli Bloggers

tags: jewschool  chicago  kehilla  myspace  jewlicious